When you think of the Nagoya tournament what first comes to mind?

For many it's something like the scene in "Fight Club" where the narrator tries not to think of the words "searing" or "flesh."

No other tournament is as closely associated with the weather as the July meet.

The intense heat and humidity, combined with traditionally ineffective air conditioning in the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, makes the furious beating of hand fans and a constant supply of cold drinks, de rigueur for those attending.

Incredibly, things are far better now than they were in the converted aircraft hangar that hosted the tournament up to 1964.

Pillars of ice were placed in the aisles in that venue, and tanks of oxygen were provided for fans succumbing to the tropical conditions.

The Nagoya tournament is also significant in one more way.

It was in the capital of central Japan that the first-ever foreign champion was crowned.

Forty-seven years ago, Hawaiian Jesse Kuhaulua, fighting under the ring name of Takamiyama became the first non-Japanese wrestler to lift the Emperor's Cup.

In the modern era, where Mongolians and other foreigners have long held sway, it can be hard to understand just how seismic that 1972 victory was.

There was debate over whether the Japanese national anthem should be played as usual at the presentation ceremony or whether the American one should be used.

They went with the former, but a letter of congratulations from U.S. President Richard Nixon was read out on the ring — the first time English had been spoken there.

Takamiyama also got a letter from another American president when he retired — this time Barack Obama, who was living in Hawaii during Kuhaulua's heyday and apparently followed his exploits closely.

Takamiyama's mere presence in sumo, never mind his success in the sport, led to a lot of hand-wringing at the time. There were many who vehemently opposed allowing foreigners into the sport at all and Kuhaulua bore the brunt of their fury as he blazed a trail in his adopted country.

His victory in Nagoya almost four decades ago opened the eyes of many stablemasters to the potential talent that lay outside these shores.

Before that championship there had only ever been 20 "foreign" wrestlers in sumo and most of those were of Japanese descent from places like Korea and China.

Less than two years after Kuhaulua's breakthrough, however, the floodgates opened. Asahiyama stablemaster brought five Tongans into the sport following a 10-day trip to the island nation with two of his stable's wrestlers.

That visit came at the behest of King Tāufa'āhau Tupou IV, who was a Japanophile with designs on making sumo the national sport of Tonga.

Things didn't work out, however, as Asahiyama died in late 1975 and the new stablemaster and the foreign rikishi couldn't get along. The sudden retirement of all of the Tongans in September 1976 almost caused a diplomatic incident and the Japan Sumo Association, at the urging of members of the Diet, had to send a few elders to meet the king to smooth things over.

That incident didn't stem the tide and a steady stream of young men from Brazil, the United States, Paraguay, Taiwan, Samoa and other places joined the sport over the next decade and a half.

In those days there were no restrictions on the number of foreigners in each stable so anyone coming from abroad wishing to join the sport was given a shot.

Most never made it to the salaried ranks, but Salevaa Atisanoe from Hawaii became ozeki and fellow islander Chad Rowan broke through the final glass ceiling when he was promoted to yokozuna in March 1993 — just 21 years after Takamiyama's breakthrough in Nagoya.

Wrestlers from 23 countries and territories have joined Japan's national sport in the 47 years since Kuhaulua lifted the Emperor's Cup. That's about to become 24 as Sergey Sokolovsky, a young Ukrainian who has spent most of the last six months living and training in Irumagawa stable, looks set to make his debut sometime in the next few tournaments.

A former amateur champion with extensive experience at the world level, Sokolovsky is part of the second wave of foreigners. For roughly two decades after Takamiyama rose to prominence, wrestlers came to Japan with virtually no idea of what sumo entailed, never mind experience in the sport. Since the advent of the World Championships in 1992, deepening links between various sumo associations around the world and stables in Japan has meant that nowadays many recruits have practiced the sport for years or at least visited and trained in professional environments before formally joining.

While thanks to the restrictions mentioned above, the overall number of foreign rikishi is roughly half what it was a decade ago, these days most are located near the top of the rankings.

In recent decades, the July tournament in particular has been utterly dominated by foreigners. For 14 straight years, starting in 2004, three Mongolian yokozuna (Asashoryu, Hakuho and Harumafuji) took every title in Nagoya. Mitakeumi last year became the first Japanese winner of the tournament since Kaio in 2003, but unless he can defend his title it seems foreign hegemony will continue in the place where it first began.